"Arrested Development" Threatening to Return to TV and Deliver a Movie

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The never-ending battle for the title of Most Hyped Project That May Never See the Light of Day has reached a new level, as the "Arrested Development" folks are talking about not only a movie, but a return to TV. Take THAT "Ghostbusters 3"!

"AD" creator Mitch Hurwitz was taking part in a panel at The New Yorker Festival this weekend when he declared his intention to air another nine or 10 episodes of the show in 2013 as a run-up to a film release, reported Deadline.

Hurwitz was sitting with most of his cast--Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Michael Cera, Tony Hale, Jeffrey Tambor, David Cross, Alia Shawkat and Jessica Walter--when he laid out his plan for each episode to focus on an individual member of the Bluth family.

And lest there be any doubt as to his sincerity, Jason Bateman confirmed the development via his publicist Twitter feed.

“It’s true,” Bateman tweeted. “We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early ’13. VERY excited!”

The only thing that leads us believe this might actually be happening is the presence of Cera, who was long blamed by his cast mates for preventing a movie from happening. There's a twist, however (isn't there always?), as the show has no home, though it's rumored that both Netflix and Showtime are possibilities.

Look, we loved "Arrested Development," and consider it one of the highpoints in television history. It was meta before the word "meta" blew up, with a winking sense of self-awareness that now feels commonplace in the age of "Modern Family" and "Community"--two shows that wouldn't, couldn't, exist without "AD" blazing the trail.

But this whole thing has been in a holding pattern for too long, everybody's hopes and expectation shave grown so outsized, that it seems impossible for Hurwitz and crew to recapture the magic. Not since Ted Williams took of for two years to fight in the Korean War and returned to post an OPS of 1.148 has such a great talent successfully returned after such a lengthy layoff.

Published at 7:24 AM PDT on Oct 3, 2011 | Updated at 11:45 AM PDT on May 30, 2012